Project
Canadian Curriculum Corner (Danika, Nicki, & Melissa)
Project Design/Development
We first considered our interests/professional audiences: K-12 teachers, post-secondary students, and adults. BC’s curriculum had recently been updated, and their new approach appealed to us on all fronts. We realized that curriculum was mostly presented as massive, text-based PDFs. Even teachers who knew what to look for had a hard time finding the information quickly, let alone parents wanting to support their students, college/university administrators trying to support incoming students, or the eager K-12 student curious to investigate their learning objectives (I’m sure they exist…somewhere). Additionally, the inconsistencies between provinces and territories was dizzying; we determined that provincial and territorial curriculum differences should be honoured, but it would be nice to have one place to check their differences and similarities. Also, wouldn’t it be nice if people got excited to read curriculum?!
We kept reminding ourselves of Issa & Isaias’s (2015) usability criteria, particularly section 2.4.2, and let this guide us. We asked ourselves questions like, “how are the current formats low in usability criteria, and in what ways can we improve user experience?” In order to answer that for our users, we defined them: teachers obviously needed access to curriculum, and likely at the deepest level of detail; parents would want a high-level summary, perhaps with some connection to future skills; and students would want to know why they should care. We discussed the differences between our audiences and determined that a website was best to present this tool.
After collaborating on the proposal, we divided the work based on our interests and skills. I took on the provincial and territorial website reviews, citing usability elements. The diverse range was fascinating, especially as an ‘outsider’ (aka, not K-12 teacher) trying to access and understand the curriculum. This provided insight from a usability perspective and determined the importance of creating a website with targeted audience information, clear navigation, and engaging design. While assessing websites, my notes naturally fell into four of Issa & Isaias’s (2015) usability criteria: learnability (could I find what I was looking for?), flexibility (could I access the information a few different ways?), efficiency (how many clicks did it take me to get there?), and satisfaction (did I enjoy the website?). From here, the comparison chart was born. Additionally, I researched website best practices, particularly around usability. Next, I started drafting the website figuring out how best to present our information. This took some trial and error but, again, our own trials provided valuable information.
Our process and product went well. I wish we’d had more time, or energy (or both), to work on this, as it was a slow realization of how massive this was. We trimmed content and pivoted a few times, but are quite happy with how it came together. After listening to other groups, I wish we had presented it to some teachers, parents, and students to gather their feedback. Feedback gathered after the fact has been good so far, though: “this is really easy to navigate. Looks good.”